almond-eyed

Almond-eyed is the layman’s term for someone who has contracted a medical condition called chalazia, which manifests itself as a lump (called a chalazion) on the eyelid that may result from a stye that is left untreated. Chalazia picked up the common name almond-eyed because a chalazion can have the general appearance of a almond (see almond; i.e. a low, steep-sided, unnatural, inexplicable pile of dirt).

It’s ironic that a bunch of what can best be described as illiterate jerks started referring to suffers of chalazia as being almond-eyed. As you will know if you bothered to “see almond” when we told you to in the preceding paragraph, an almond is only an almond if it did not form naturally, otherwise the scientific name for it is mound. Chalazions do form naturally. Consequently, almond-eyed is a misnomer.

What’s more, almonds are only almonds if their creation was inexplicable. Chalazions, in contrast, do have a known cause. If you are the exception to the rule and, by some miracle, you have been paying attention, you know that the cause is usually a stye that was left untreated.

Thus, if people were rational, they would refer to chalazia suffers as mound-eyed, not almond-eyed. But, clearly, rationality is in woefully short supply in this world.

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